Preview for .prt files in the Windows 7 preview pane

This is a setting in Windows itself (you can use small icon, details, list, ....), i think the previews of the part files also depends on if you create jt files with them, not sure if you can change anything in cust def....

Best regards,

Michaël.

NX7.5.4.4 + TC Unified 8.3
Win 7 64 bit

That would be nice. Basically everything else does this except NX


Regards
Greg

NX does it, too. You need to enable the setting in customer defaults. It stores a small jpeg image in the part file header. It will only appear on files saved AFTER the setting is enabled. (Which is the same with other programs.)


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

Maybe we are talking about different things here,



Regards
Greg

No. That is the preview. It must be enabled in customer defaults before the file is saved. It is OFF by default becasue it adds time to the save process and increases the file size.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

Ben,
Have you tried it? Seems it isn't working as you expect it to.

If you change the explorer view type to medium icon (or larger) the part preview will show up in the main explorer window. If you activate the preview pane it always reports "no preview available". However, regardless of the main window view style, the preview will display in the details section (in the footer) when you select a file.

www.nxjournaling.com

NX only supports 'thumbnail' previews, which are adequate for use in the NX File Open dialog and for the .prt file icon displayed inside the Explorer window itself. Unfortunately, to limit the impact, of including this image, on the NX part file size, the overall size and resolution of this image saved inside the NX part file was not suitable for use in the Explorer's 'preview pane'.

BTW, you can also capture the thumbnail 'snapshot' image manually if you wish and then have that image used instead of having it updated every time the part file is saved. This is handy for things like standard parts where you might like the thumbnail image to show the part in a certain way with a certain orientation and background for clarity but which would not necessarily be how you'd like to see it on the screen when it was opened. A good example is something like a threaded feature which would LOOK nice if you saw the preview threaded so as to help identify the correct item, but where you wouldn't want the part to come in with the detailed threads displayed for performance reasons. You could enable the threads, set the background color and orientation and scale as you would like it to appears in the preview image and then go to...

File -> Properties -> Preview

...and you will see the current preview displayed (if the file has been saved at least once). To get a manual preview, just change the 'Creation Time' option in the 'Part Preview' section of the dialog from 'On Save' to 'On Demand'. Now get yoru model to look the way you want it, then select the 'Create Preview Now' button and you'll see the new preview. You can repeat this as many times as necessary until you've got the exact image that you want. One you're satisfied, you can close the dialog, set your model back to how you want it to be when used, such as disabling the threads, changing the background color, whatever, and then save the part file. From now on, no matter how many times this file is opened and modified, when you save it the preview will NOT be updated and will remain the way it was when you manually captured the image.

Here's an example of what I mean:



John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Are there any plans to implement the windows Preview pane, it is rather handy and most other CAD/CAM companies support it

Regards
Greg

If enough people request it, by contacting GTAC and opening ER's (Enhancement Requests), it will be given consideration.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.